Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crime does not pay, July 8, 2002
"Torso" is a great comic. Not being a huge fan of crime-fiction myself, I gave it a try based on Bendis's excellent work on the comic series "Powers." Also, I liked the idea of a real-life "super-hero" in Eliot Ness pitched against a real-life "super-villain" in the form of the Torso serial killer. Like Alan Moore's "From Hell," Bendis took a real, unresolved case and weaved a drama around facts. His story-telling is realistic and gritty, and does not contain Moore's flights of fancy. I would have liked to have seen an appendix, separating the drama from the known facts, and why Bendis choose his particular culprit. The art is not a strong initial attractor, but after reading a few pages it starts to flow. The mix of photos and drawings is effective. This is really strong stuff, and I recommend it to comic fans and crime-fiction fans alike.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1930s Serial Killer Stalks Cleveland, December 16, 2005
I'm not usually that interested in serial killers, be they real or fictional, but I'll check out almost any graphic novel, and so I picked this up from the library recently. The book is a fictional recasting of the grisly "Torso Killer" murders that took place in Cleveland roughly between 1935-39. One aspect that makes it a touch more interesting is the involvement of Elliot Ness, fresh from his legendary "Untouchables"-leading, Capone-busting successes in Chicago. After the end of Prohibition, Ness left the G-men and was hired in 1935 by the city of Cleveland as Director of Public Safety. This coincided almost exactly with the emergence of a gruesome serial killer who decapitated and often dismembered his victims, leaving most of the remains in or near Lake Erie Sound. (Note: Contrary to what some reviewers have written, this was hardly the first serial killer in America. The first reliably documented serial killer operated in the 1890s in Chicago and was the subject of a very entertaining recent book, Devil in the White Castle.)
The story documents the initial investigation by a pair of tough-talking police detectives while Ness is busy purging the police department of corrupt cops. However, as the corpses start mounting up, the mayor forces Ness to take charge of the Torso case. The bulk of the book is then a pretty straightforward police procedural, as Ness and the lead detectives pursue various angles. The most notable of these is Ness' controversial decision to clear out a large shantytown of unemployed people and burn it to the ground in order to deny the killer an easy target population. The investigation is handled pretty well, with good pacing and great dialogue peppered with plenty of period slang. Personal lives are woven in, somewhat less successfully, as Ness' marriage crumbles and one of the detectives reveals a shocking secret. These subplots feel kind of tacked on and underwritten. The climax falters a little bit as well, as the writers deviate slightly from reality in order to create an action-packed finale which never happened. However, the real suspect (Dr. Francis E. Sweeney) was interrogated by Ness, and was protected by political family, and did more or less elude justice as the book depicts.
The artwork is pretty interesting, incorporating period photographs and documents into the bold black and white artwork. Some of the layouts and paneling are quite creatively done (especially the interrogation sequence), although one section which requires turning the book sideways for several spreads is really awkward and annoying. A section at the end provides additional original photos and documents relating to the case, which are interesting, but need more context. The book really needs a few pages where it is explained what is real and what the writer invented or rearranged (for example, in real life, the postcards taunting Ness weren't sent until after the killings stopped), and what happened to Ness and the suspect and detectives over the rest of their lives. Since this series came out, a large number of original police files were discovered following the death of one of the lead detectives and several other works have appeared, including two books (In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders and Torso: Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathic Killer) and a documentary (The Fourteenth Victim - Eliot Ness and the Torso Murder). Overall, well worth checking out.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Image grows-up, March 5, 2002
I've read a few Bendis titles in the past and have been just okay with them. I ran across this one at the library and decided to give it a try. Absolutely stunning. This guy shouldn't waste his time with hero comics because when he's just okay with them. While getting his hands around historical crime, he just explodes into someone like a Caleb could only hope to be. This was on level with "From Hell" in the graphic world and Elroy's "Black Dahlia" in non-graphic, but lacking some of their depth. Well researched and well presented. It's a story I had never heard of and will definitely read more about in the future. The presentation, which is something I rarely comment on in a graphic book, was unbelelievable. I loved the mixture of drawing with old photography. I was impressed with the authentic dialogue based on periodic idiomatic expressions. And the wording, I just came away so impressed with it. The way it was connected to visually cue your eyes to the graphics. And how it was always easy to follow the structure due to this, even though it was anything but the linear paneling we are used to with comics. One moment that is just spectacular is an interrogation of a potential suspect by Eliot Ness and how the format swirls around two pages leading into a metaphorical abyss. And you'll have to read a little more to understand that abyss comment. Loved the ending! Loved the ending! Loved the ending! It may not meet the expectations of those that demand conclusion, but there was something so fundamental about the nature of power there that I just loved it. Top 5 all time Graphic Novel. And who can ever compete with Sandman, so let's be real and say Top 4;)
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